The appeal of Going Solo is
the modern non-fiction book mix of
statistics and factoids, case studies, interviews, and breezy
narrative. Living alone today in the United States and the developed
countries revolves around a heady mix of sociological
movements: mores, labor, deprecation of marriage, reemergence
of urban life, and the atomization of society, for better or worse.

During
the past half century, our species has embarked on a remarkable social
experiment. For the first time in human history, great numbers of
people -- at all ages, in all places, of every political persuasion --
have begun settling down as singletons.

By "singleton,"
author Klinenberg means not unmarried people but people living alone. In the
U.S., 28 percent do, clustered in large cities where easy access to
24/7 social life revolving around restaurants, cafes, shops,
entertainment centers, and especially job sources for younger people
and social services for older people are more accessible than in suburbia
or smaller cities and towns. Ease of living quarters,
human
contact, employment, and transportation have highlighted a trend away
from institutional commitments, having children, and maintaining
life-long relationships, whether to partners or employers. The trend
fulfills American individualism originating in Emerson, Thoreau, the
encounter with the frontier, and material culture, such that, as the author puts it, "it would
be easy to conclude that the contemporary urban singleton is just the
latest variation on this theme."

The author identifies the women's movement, telecommunications
revolution, mass urbanization, and increased longevity as primary
factors shaping aloneness as a positive factor. Solitude, he carefully
points out, has a long tradition, East and West, among hermits, monks,
and ascetics, but these examples are for modern society abstract or
negative. The rise of the many factors mentioned liberated
non-conformists (and women) to pursue aloneness without negatives,
without social or moral sanctions, economic disadvantages,
or psychological isolation.

Among interesting U.S. statistics, comparable in developing
countries:

number of people in household: 5 in 1900, 3 in 1950, 2.6 in
2000;

number of rooms per child: .7 for 2.4 children in 1960, 1.1
for 1.9 children in 2000 (meaning that children are being trained to
live alone);

Most people who live alone are financially secure, not poor, and those
who purposely use their domestic spaces as an oasis from their busy,
stressful work lives report that is a regenerating not an
isolating
experience.

One significant negative social trend is that many single men without college degrees are considered
"unmarriageable," with downward social and economic expectations. In
1970, only 8 percent of the male population could so be characterized,
but in 2006 the percentage is 22. Urban areas have thus experienced the
revival of SROs, i.e., single room occupancy hotels or hostels, usually
in poorer, less safe urban areas, as economic and labor
prospects disenfranchise males from a better livelihood.

Though a smaller section of the book, the chapter "Aging
Alone" further extends the complexity of aloneness. People aged 65 or
older have increased dramatically in numbers: ten percent of the
population in 1950, 33 percent in 2010, due to increased longevity and
the physical health and capacity for sustaining independence. But
usually age requires living differently, often partnerless, jobless,
with waning health and a shrinking social circle, including family
circle. In the latter case, one telling statistic: 70 percent of widows
lived with a child in 1900, while in 2000 only 20 percent did. (The
number varies by circumstance, income, race, ethnicity, and other
factors. For example, 40 or 50 percent of elderly in Harlem
live alone.)

What do all these figures mean? Klinenberg's observations are
important.

The extraordinary rise of
living alone is not in itself a social problem. But it is a dramatic
social change that's already exacerbated serious problems for which
there are no easy solutions: social isolation for the elderly and
frail. Reclusiveness for the poor and vulnerable. Self-doubt for those
who worry that going solo will leave them childless, or unhappy, or
alone.

The social changes driving the shift towards living alone are
here to stay, and policy-makers and cultural critics need to realize
that living alone is "a valid individual choice" that has not
accelerated a decline in collective life or social commitments but transformed them,
such that things "are unlikely to be reversed." That said, however,
people today

can easily forget that it's
vital to learn how to be alone. ... [I]instead of leading to loneliness
or isolation, having a place of one's own gives us time and space for a
productive retreat. Solitude, once we learn how to use it, does more
than restore our personal energy. It also sparks new ideas about how we
might better live together.

Klinenberg's book addresses many of the popularized excoriations
of living alone, while realistically analyzing the causes of the
singleton movement. The book usefully supersedes the plethora of recent
books on contemporary aloneness to offer constructive facts
and insights.